http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/construction-traffic-i35-s5.jpgArea Senators want State DOT to explain where $46 million in federal transportation dollars granted for local governments has gone.

STURGEON BAY - State Senators Caleb Frostman (D-Sturgeon Bay) and Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) are calling on Governor Walker’s Department of Transportation (DOT) to explain where the $46 million in federal transportation dollars granted for local governments have been sent by the agency.

Federal Service Transportation Block Grant funds are requested by municipalities and then passed from the Federal Highway Administration through the DOT to the requesting local governments to fix vital roads in their communities. Somewhere along the line that $46 million of federal money has gone missing without an explanation from Governor Walker or the DOT causing concern for local communities struggling to repair aging and damaged roads.

“Our local governments in northeast Wisconsin rely on the Department of Transportation to efficiently and fairly administer these vital Federal funds,” said Frostman. “Mismanagement by Governor Walker and legislative Republicans has led to delayed road projects, the diversion of over $150 million in state transportation funding to Foxconn, and now it has resulted in the disappearance of $46 million in federal funds for local communities.”

“Due to their inability to find a long-term funding solution for Wisconsin’s aging transportation infrastructure and the diversion of millions of dollars to Foxconn in southeast Wisconsin, the Governor and Legislative Republicans have created a crisis for local roads,” said Hansen.

This unprecedented diversion removes over $3 million from both Appleton and Green Bay’s budgets for designated transportation projects. This action by the DOT is adding more strain to communities that are grappling with crumbling roads and bridges.

“Governor Walker’s and the Republicans have had total control of state government since 2011. All that time their playbook has been to cut funding to local communities and schools and forcing them to make up for the lost state funding. The results are terrible roads, dangerous bridges and schools so badly underfunded that local residents have voted to raise their own property taxes just to keep the lights on,” Hansen said. “It’s gotten so bad that now they can’t even tell us what they did with $46 million.”